37440 exposures to capture the night sky - that's dedication!

The details of the Scorpius constellation, right, and the Milky Way,
are seen in this photograph provided by Nick Risinger of Skysurvey.org. Photo: AP

About two weeks ago, this photo of the Milky Way emerged - I first saw it on Facebook. I read more about how the amazing photo was created, and am really impressed at how incredibly dedicated the photographer, Nick Risinger was to create it.

According to the AP article republished on smh.com.au, Nick "programmed his six cameras to track the stars as they moved across the sky and simultaneously snapped thousands of photos.

He then stitched 37,440 exposures together into a spectacular, panoramic survey sky that he posted online two weeks ago. The photo reveals a 360-degree view of the Milky Way, planets and stars in their true natural colors. Viewers can zoom in on portions of the 5000-megapixel image to find Orion or the Large Magellanic Cloud."

I can't imagine the computer processing power you'd need to create a 5,000Mb image. Or the fact that Nick travelled some 100,000kms over the course of the year to position himself to take the photos!

The AP article, and Nick's site at Photopic Sky Survey, go into a whole lot of detail about Nick's mega shoot.

What a captivating project. What a labour of love! I love examples of such dedication to a photographic cause.

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About Me

Hi! I'm Melanie Coppola (Surplice), a Brisbane-based photographile. I've enjoyed dabbling with cameras for as long as I can remember - and these days, I can even take the odd photo that's not blurry.

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